The first step to building the world's most powerful radio astronomy telescope has been completed, with the launch of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia. The ASKAP is made of 36 radio antenna dishes covering 126 square kilometres, and will be part of the Square Kilometre Array that will stretch across South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. This new array will provide us a much bigger and quicker view of the sky, and could help astronomers to better understand things such as black holes.
